Terra Nova

Series Description

Terra Nova is a 60 minute Sci-Fi series that is currently in production for the FOX Network. It will be about a dying Earth set in the year 2149 with massive overpopulation and horrible levels of pollution that has driven most plant and animal species into extinction! Unbridled and immoral advancement of technology is responsible for this dilemma but a few scientists have found a possible way for humanity to survive. They create a time portal that enables people to go back in time 85 million years where the environment is pristine but obvious challenges and dangers exist including flesh eating dinosaurs! The "colonists" struggle to build a new life in their new home called "Terra Nova" as they discover that there are even more challenges than the obvious ones in this new world.

Terra Nova Cast

Stephen Lang as Commander Frank Taylor - The first person to arrive through the time portal and the leader of Terra Nova.

Jason O'Mara as Jim Shannon - A great and loving father with a dark secret from his past.

Landon Liboiron as Josh Shannon - The son who is heartbroken because he had to leave his girl back on present day Earth.

Naomi Scott as Maddy Shannon - The daring and free willed daughter who risks everything by questioning the colony's leadership.

Alana Mansour as Zoe Shannon - Josh and Maddy's little sister.

Allison Miller as Skye - An original settler of Terra Nova who helps Josh adapt to his new life there.

Mido Hamada as Guzman - The head of a Terra Nova security team and advisor to Commander Frank Taylor.

Christine Adams as Mira - A battle-hardened Terra Nova colonist who meets the Shannon family shortly after their arrival.

Terra Nova Trivia

The series gets its name from the fact that Terra Nova means "new land" in Latin.

At a lunch meeting in June of 2009 FOX executives told some of Steven Spielberg's top level assistants that the network was interested in a sci-fi / adventure series that would appeal to families in a similar manner to Spielberg's movies, "ET: The Extra-Terrestrial" and "Jurassic Park". The result of that meeting was Terra Nova!

In mid October of 2010 it was reported that production costs for the Terra Nova pilot episode had exceeded $10 million with not one single scene being shot! Predictions of costs perhaps climbing to $20 million caused some to describe the production to that point as "a debacle". If the cost would have exceeded $18 million, Terra Nova would have had the most expensive premiere in television history! In the end, the first two hours came in at approximately $16 million with a crew of about 300 people involved in the project. That compares with a crew of 110 to 130 for the typical television production. FOX may not be too disappointed, however, if the Terra Nova pilot lives up to its potential to be one of the greatest television premieres of all time!

The announced production budget for ongoing episodes of Terra Nova will be $4 million each. No huge stars have been cast so most of that expenditure will likely go to writing, production and special effects.

Terra Nova is filmed on location in Queensland, Australia and at Warner Bros. Movieworld studios also in Queensland. It is being produced collaboratively by 20th Century FOX, Dreamworks Television, Amblin Entertainment and Chernin Entertainment.

Terra Nova is an action packed science fiction extravaganza for good reason! Executive producer Brannon Braga brings experience to the table in both genres with credits on the action series, "24" and sci-fi experience on "Flash Forward", "Threshold", and Star Trek series "The Next Generation", "Voyager" and "Enterprise". Executive producer Jon Cassar has nearly 100 episodes of "24" on his resume and fellow legendary executive producer Steven Spielberg brings his big screen career to the mix with credits including "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial", "Back to the Future" (and its sequels), "Deep Impact", "Jurassic Park" (and its sequels) and "Transformers" (and its sequels) among many others! Mr. Spielberg also produced TV sci-fi series titled "Amazing Stories", "SeaQuest DSV" and the "Taken Miniseries".

The series centers around the Shannon Family who are among the tenth group of pioneers to travel to the past and the Terra Nova colony.

Terra Nova was also the title of the sixth episode of the series, "(Star Trek) Enterprise". The Enterprise was sent to investigate a colonized planet that the Earth had lost contact with seventy years earlier.

Science fiction is not the only place where you will find the name of this series. Terra Nova is also the name of towns in both Newfoundland and Brazil. Newfoundland also has a river and a national park by the same name. At the bottom of the world there's even a Terra Nova Bay named by Robert Scott during his famed expedition to be the first to reach the geographical south pole. In fact, Scott's entire quest was called the Terra Nova expedition. By the way, he reached the pole 33 days after another explorer set the record and both Scott and all of his crew who set out for the pole died on their way back to civilization!